Kalimpong, a centre of convergence: trade, town and people

It was said, that sometime in the 1940’s a wealthy man, to be specific; the director of Rolex watches was eager to know about “Kalimpong,” where an unusually high number of Rolexwatches were in demand. When the man finally reached Kalimpong, he was rather stunned to find that Kalimpong was just a minor trade hub in the eastern Himalayas.

This article is an effort to explore the distant past of Kalimpong- when it was thriving as an important Indo-Tibetan trade center. Apart from serving as a centre for economic enterprise, it was also recognised as an important converging point for people with different ideas. In the process, their legacies transcended kalimpong into an advancing urban center, beginning the early twentieth century.

It all began in 1904, after the so called colonel Younghusband’s expedition to Lhasa. At that point, it was to introduce commerce across the Himalayas was a mere political gambit to safeguard the Imperial interest.

To facilitate the commerce in the region, ideally, Jelepla was much preferred as a principle route to directly link the British Empire with Lhasa. Since the topography of Nathula was hazardous, it wasn’t conducive to qualify for the smooth mobility of trade.

Since, Kalimpong was located in the middle of Indo-Tibetan trade route, it was the most convenient point for transit- trade, to substitute Kathmandu, as an entry point for the otherwise, such a long distance trade. The goods were received at the entry point, till they were re-exported, primarily to provide the break that was needed in the course of such long distance trade, executed under a single agency. Charles Bell, the noted British representative in Tibet thus comments: “The most important of all the trade routes between India and Tibet takes off from Kalimpong in the dist. of Darjeeling crossing south eastern Sikkim and enters the Chumbi valley by the Jelepla.” Places such as this witnessed the colossal political and economic changes over the period of time and also primarily owed their importance or rather existence to the caravan trade across the Indo-Tibetan border. Trading practice and the growth of town is “incremental” and symbiotic”, this processes cannot be seen in isolation. Kalimpong which acted as an entry point for the Indo- Tibetan trade in the first half of the 20th century was one such town, where trade was the very raison d’être for its growth. Commodities like woolen and cotton goods ,iron ,steel ,brass and copper sheets and wares, stationary ,sugar , gur, dried fruits ,dyes ,chemical ,kerosene ,candles ,lantern ,electronic torches and batteries ,brick tea , aluminum ware , porcelain ,cement ,leather goods ,cigarettes ,leaf tobacco and pharmaceutical goods were sent to Tibet in exchange for musk ,wool ,yaks tail, silver ,gold etc. As has often been recounted by the locals, “almost everything” was carried to Tibet. Similarly from Tibet the raw wool constituted 90 percent of her annual export to India, some of which found their way into the Indian mills and the remains were re-exported to Liverpool and America.

Almost seven years since the trade started, the landscape of the area started to change. To increase the efficiency of the goods circulation, the overland traffic was mechanized, half way though -Teesta valley Mail, an extension of the Darjeeling Himalayan railway was completed upto Gaille khola (12 miles from Kalimpong) and opened for traffic in 1915. Similarly, considerable effort was put to improve the cart road from Teesta bazaar to Kalimpong. This “annihilation of space and time” had ensured the efficient mobility of goods, which had brought about an improvement in the lives of the toiling mass. Considering the mountain ecologies, road construction across the asymmetrical hilly terrain presented various Ecological challenges and sometimes even at the cost of innocent lives. All these painstaking work of subalterns had helped Kalimpong to gradually glide towards urbanization. Thanks largely to their dreadful labor, that it was no longer oblivion for the socio- economic and political development to be connected with places beyond Teesta.

The rural setting of Kalimpong was not hindered. For the business minded individuals; it was trade all that matter. The rural setting too began to improve and received further impetus, when Rev. J.A Graham proposed to develop a Kalimpong into a town. Hence, in 1916 Kalimpong was declared a subdivision of Darjeeling District. This was basically to develop Kalimpong as a town. While describing Kalimpong as a hill town, it is intriguing to note that, it did not present a prototype of romantic English country home, away from the congestion of cities and politics of Indian plains. It certainly lacked the typical hill station characteristics like others in the eastern Himalayan or may be in India. It did not offer a cool climate like that of neighboring Darjeeling, to be developed into a sanatorium or as a seasonal retreat to fit into the ambit of colonial life style. Moreover, even the educational institution that was established did not show any parity with the institution of neighboring hill station. The most prominent educational establishment in the region was St. Andrews colonial homes(1900) which was situated on an estate of 611 acres . The main object behind its establishment was to provide education to children wholly or partly of British or other European descent. Such an education and training based upon protestant principle, as most of them were fit to serve as immigrants in the British colony or to look for suitable work elsewhere. Other institutions were primarily committed to train and educate the natives of the region.

In 1925 Himalayan hotel was built, the only European establishment of David McDonald tocater the European and British visitors. The total no. of Europeans in 1941 was 529 out of the total of 11,958 people within Kalimpong town. Therefore, it can certainly be said that Kalimpong was not a so called favored tourist destination. On the contrary, Kalimpong was truly a place reserved as a trade and commerce hub, that would thrive in the activity filled with seasonal bustling of the mule caravans from Tibet.

Not so long ago, Kalimpong which was originally a hamlet that had over the years evolved as a vibrant “social space.” In the process, various individuals encountered each other within the social and economic sphere. It thus became convenient for the Tibetans to enter the outside world through Kalimpong. Similarly as a gateway it helped many foreign scholars, artists, adventurers, missionaries to enter Tibet. During the times of political instability, it became a major hub for gathering information for the Japanese spies, Tibetan revolutionaries, and British intelligence networks.

Scholars often argued that, this little town was a major gossip center to provide juicy information from across the border. Hence, Mr. Dorje Tharchin (Rdo rje mthar phyin) ,A Christian catechist from kinnaur ,in 1925,found the location appropriate for the establishment of his press. It was to be the first long serving newspaper in the Tibetan language, entitled “Yul phyogs so so’i gsar ’gyur me long”, or “The Mirror of News from All Sides of the World”, and was later came to be known as “The Tibet Mirror”. Though a small publication, it had a wide circulation and was well received in places like Assam, Darjeeling, Bhutan, Sikkim, Tibet, Kashmir, Almora, Himachal and Nepal. Eventually, it became a vehicle for the dissemination of modern idea and information to the monastic land of far off Tibet and adjoining areas.

However, the prosperous times were not to last forever. After 1950, with the formation of PLA and the occupation of Tibet, gradually all the wool was diverted to china and American buyers withdrew from the market. Soon after 12 years, boundary disputes and Sino- Indian war had resulted into the closing of borders. Trade was brought to a complete halt. Responding to the changing political and Geo-economic transformation in the region, all the traders shifted their business to a more lucrative location and Kalimpong was reduced to a sleepy hamlet. The reminiscences of trade still linger among the locals, and they are often nostalgic of the golden era that Kalimpong had once experienced. This is just a fragment of the whole picture, that I have made an effort to present. As otherwise, it is beyond the purview of this article to compress and recollect the wider information of the glorious past.

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